Weekly Meal Planner Printable

I decided to make a printable sheet that I can print out each week to display my planning efforts.  I can print it, write things in with a pencil, and erase or switch it up as needed.  I find that I need to do that A LOT!  Our schedules change frequently around here and I'm okay with that!

Feel free to print out for yourself:

I also made one with a white background to save on printer ink:

Enjoy!  and...HAPPY MEAL PLANNING!  ~God Bless, Melanie

Another BRIOCHE delight! ...French Toast!

Start out with your BRIOCHE DOUGH recipe...

It's so easy!  And so YUMMY!  Try it!  Let me know how you like it... God Bless, Melanie

Brioche! How about some yummy cheese bread?

As I've said before, bread is one of my favorite things.... put a little of my other favorite thing with it and you have heaven!  CHEESE!!  I love cheese!  In this house, it is a staple.  We use it for just about everything.

This recipe is really easy!  Just grab a couple of handfuls of your BRIOCHE DOUGH from the fridge.


Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F.










Lightly flour your kneading surface and knead the dough until it's easy to work with.









Add CHEESE!










Mix cheese in well and separate into three equal parts.

Roll each part into "worms" and place on cookie sheet sprayed with non-stick cooking spray!

Pinch one end together and braid, as shown. Pinch at the end to hold together.

Mix together one egg and a couple of tablespoons of milk or water to make an EGG WASH.  Brush on entire loaf.  This will give your bread a beautiful color and shine.

Bake in preheated oven until golden brown, about 45 minutes. Serve warm.

Ohhhhh.... so beautiful and yummy!!






Now, let me know when you try this and how you like it!

Brioche! Let's bake a couple of loaves...

 Now that you have made your BRIOCHE DOUGH and stuck it in the fridge overnight, you are probably very anxious to make something with it!  I know I was!!  The next morning the dough was creeping out over the sides of the bowl, so I just punched it down a few times and moved on.  Now, this recipe will easily make 5-6 amazing loaves of bread, so you can have fresh bread every day!  And, it is so yummy!

Here's how to bake the dough for loaves of bread:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees while you're working your dough.

Be sure to flour your kneading surface very well so the dough will be easier to work with.

The dough will be sticky, so work flour into it as needed.

Form dough into loaves - mine are a little large, but turned out wonderful!

Generously spray your pan(s) with a non-stick cooking spray.  I used the Baking Spray.

Put your loaves into the pan(s) and bake at 350 for about 45 minutes...  you may test your loaf to see if it's done by thumping the top of it.  If it gives off a sort of hollow sound rather than wet, it's done.  It will also be a nice, golden brown color as shown below.

Doesn't that look gorgeous?!?  Makes me want to dig right in!  Just turn your loaves out onto a rack or cutting board, allow to cool a bit (not too much - I love it warm!!) and ENJOY!

Brioche! I think it's time to make some more...

One of my favorite things that I have made over the years is this Brioche Dough.  For years I fell into the "convenience food" trap and a couple of years ago I set out to get myself out of that trap!  For one, convenience foods are expensive!  Another thing is that you really don't know what you're putting into your body (or the bodies of your precious family!) when you purchase these foods.  Half of the ingredients I cannot even pronounce!

It's been a while since I made this yummy bread and there are so many different things you can do with it.  I think it's about time to make some and try a few new recipes with it.  Here are the ingredients you will need:

It's very easy to make - takes a little time - but, so worth the wait!  Here's what ya do after gathering all of your ingredients (above):

In a large bowl mix yeast and lukewarm water together and set aside.

In another bowl, mix your honey, melted butter, and salt.  

Then combine in the large, glass bowl with the yeast and water.

Now it's time to add the flour.  This part worried me a little because I do not have a stand mixer and I have tried mixing bread doughs by hand many times and it was tough, to say the least!  But, I was pleasantly surprised that this was not so bad!

Now just cover it up with a dish towel and leave it on the kitchen counter while you watch a movie with the kids!  ... about 2 and a half hours.

It will rise very nicely!  Then, just stick it in the fridge until you're ready to use it.  This dough will keep for about a week in the refrigerator so you won't waste any of it.  It can be used to make loaf bread, rolls, donuts, sticky buns, and many other things.  

Stay tuned for more posts on how to make different things with this dough...  ~God Bless, Melanie

Jonathan loves to cook!

In our home, school never ends because we not only home school our children, we believe that Natural Learning is the best kind!

My son, Jonathan, who is eleven years old still loves to help his Momma - especially in the kitchen! Thank you Lord!! It's been a long time since I made my Chicken & Dumplings I just had to have some!

Jonathan did a great job in the kitchen today! And, he learned something. Now, that's what I call accomplishment! He's going to make some woman very happy one day! ;)




 Here's my recipe, in case you want to try it! It's super easy and a lot of fun with the kids!

Chicken & Dumplings Ingredients:
1 whole chicken, boiled and deboned
Broth from cooking chicken plus 1 carton of chicken broth
1 can of cream of chicken soup
2 cups of flour, self rising works best

Boil whole chicken in large pot until done. Remove from broth and pull apart, breaking into bite size pieces. Set aside.
Strain broth and put back into your pot.
Add about a cup to a cup and a half of broth to flour; mix well. If it's still "sticky" add more flour.
Roll out on floured board about 1/4 inch thin. Cut dough into squares of about an inch. Return broth to a rolling boil and drop dumplings into the broth one at a time. Stir the dumplings occasionally to keep them from sticking together and to the bottom of the pot.
Add can of cream of chicken soup and stir. Then, add the chicken and boil or simmer, stirring frequently until dumplings are to your liking. I like to cook them for about 30 minutes.

See how easy this recipe is? And, I have to say it is so good! Let me know if you try it out and how you like it!! HAPPY COOKING!

Melanie's Homemade Egg Rolls..

One of the things my family loves is Asian food.  For some odd reason, I've never tried to make it on my own.  It just seemed easier to purchase the frozen varieties.  Boy, have we been missing out!

One of my new "resolutions" for my family is that we begin eating a healthier diet without all of the added poisons found in prepared foods these days.  My heart's desire is to have my own little "mini farm" and garden to prepare our own foods so I know exactly where they came from and what all is in it!

Anyway, I decided we would have a great, Asian meal so I set out to cook my own egg rolls along with some fried rice and sweet & sour chicken.  BEST DECISION EVER!  These egg rolls were super easy and so very good!

I looked up a few recipes... that's what I do!  When I want to make something I've never made before, I look up about five recipes and then I create my own.  When I look up all of these recipes I figure out what they all have in common and go from there... mainly looking for cooking times and oven temps.

Here's what I came up with:

I started out by purchasing egg roll wrappers found in the produce section at my grocery store.  Now, ideally I should have made my own wrappers, but that I left to another day!

I gathered all the ingredients I would need:

Egg roll wrappers
2 T cooking oil
Shredded cabbage/carrot mix (yes, in the bag! - I'm not there quite yet!!)
container of bean sprouts (next to the egg roll wrappers)
1/2 yellow onion, minced
2 green onions, minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb pork, chopped into very small pieces
1 t. ginger
Soy sauce
Salt & Pepper

In a skillet, heat oil.  Add garlic and onions and saute until done.  Add pork and cook until done.  Add cabbage, carrots and bean sprouts and stir fry until completely cooked.  About halfway through cooking, add ginger, soy sauce to your liking and salt & pepper.  Cook thoroughly.
<<< It will look like this!
Remove the mixture from heat and allow to cool enough to work with.  Once cool, grab a wrapper and place on the counter as shown below and proceed to wrap about 2 tablespoons of mixture into each wrapper.


Place the mixture close to the corner facing you and form into an oval as shown.







Fold up once, then left corner and right corner to the inside.










Then, finish rolling.  It's very easy!







CHOOSE your cooking method:

OVEN:  Preheat oven to 350 and GENEROUSLY spray cookie sheet with non-stick spray.  Arrange egg rolls on cookie sheet with sides not touching.  My recipe made 12 large egg rolls, but could have easily made 18 smaller ones.  SPRAY tops and sides of egg rolls with non-stick spray and bake for about 20 minutes until crispy and brown.

DEEP FRYER:  Preheat frying oil to 350 and deep fry egg rolls until golden brown.

ENJOY!

Once you make these simple egg rolls, you will never go back to frozen!!  Now you can adjust your recipe and make many different flavors.  Let me know if you try them!

~God Bless, Melanie

Meal Planning.... Yes or No?

Today I am going to begin (again!) making a meal plan for our family.  My goal is to take a day each month, or every two weeks, to cook and prepare meals to be frozen for easy prep later.

I would love, love, LOVE your input on this!  Please let me know if you have any experience with this or any input.  And, share your favorite meals with me!  If I can go two weeks without preparing the same meal twice, I consider it a grand accomplishment! :)

~God Bless, Melanie